Department of Health and Social Care

Dementia

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding was allocated from the public purse to dementia research in 2016-17.

Caroline Dinenage: An error has been identified in the written answer given on 21 May 2018.The correct answer should have been:

The Department funds research on health and social care through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). NIHR does not usually ring-fence funds for specific disease areas such as dementia. NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health including dementia. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. In all disease areas, the amount of NIHR funding depends on the volume and quality of scientific activity. NIHR funding for dementia research grew to £44.6 million in 2016/17, up from £37 million in 2015/16. This is a major contribution to meeting the commitment under the Government’s 2020 Dementia Challenge, to maintain funding at £60 million a year. The other main public funders of dementia research are the Medical Research Council, which in 2016/17 spent £30.6 £36 million, and the Economic and Social Research Council, which spent £2.5 million, to bring total Government spending on dementia research to £83.1 million.

Caroline Dinenage: The Department funds research on health and social care through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). NIHR does not usually ring-fence funds for specific disease areas such as dementia. NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health including dementia. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. In all disease areas, the amount of NIHR funding depends on the volume and quality of scientific activity. NIHR funding for dementia research grew to £44.6 million in 2016/17, up from £37 million in 2015/16. This is a major contribution to meeting the commitment under the Government’s 2020 Dementia Challenge, to maintain funding at £60 million a year. The other main public funders of dementia research are the Medical Research Council, which in 2016/17 spent £30.6 £36 million, and the Economic and Social Research Council, which spent £2.5 million, to bring total Government spending on dementia research to £83.1 million.

Attorney General

Brexit

Lesley Laird: To ask the Attorney General, what information he holds on the timetable for the Supreme Court hearing on the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill.

Jeremy Wright: On 17th April this year, the Advocate General for Scotland and I referred the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill to the Supreme Court for a decision on whether the Bill would be within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament. The hearing is due to take place in July 2018 and we are in the process of agreeing a timetable for filing written cases with the Scottish Government in accordance with directions from the Supreme Court.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Procurement

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many contractors his Department employs who have worked for his Department for (a) up to one year, (b) over one and up to five years, (c) over five years and up to ten years and (d) over 10 years.

Jake Berry: As of 26 May 2018 , the Department employed 34 contractors as follows:Time in DepartmentContractors(a) up to one year25(b) over one and up to five years9(c) over five years and up to ten years0(d) over ten years0Grand Total34Note: Table based on off-payroll contractors (contingent labour only.) Figures do not include fixed-term appointees with a direct contract of employment with the Department

Ministry of Defence

Army: Recruitment

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 20 February 2018 to Question 127841, on Army: Recruitment, if he will publish (a) a copy of the digital file or a link to each social media asset used in paid campaigns by his Department for Army recruitment advertisements and (b) each platform those assets were published on in (i) 2015-16 and (ii) 2016-17.

Mark Lancaster: Holding answer received on 16 April 2018



The social media platforms used for direct paid marketing in Recruiting Year (RY) 2015-16 and RY 2016-17 were Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. The attached spreadsheet provides posting dates and links to the materials used on these sites. Digital files of adverts that have been removed are not held by the Department. While gathering input to answer this Question it was found that there were errors with the figures provided in the previous response to Questions 127841 and 127842 due to inaccurate information provided by an external contractor. The following table shows the total spend for web advertising and the disaggregated spend for each type of advert over the last three years.  RY 2015-16RY 2016-17RY 2017-18 (as of 30 September 2017)Job Boards£640,000£620,000£440,000Display£970,000£1,360,000£940,000Search£460,000£380,000£170,000Paid Social£370,000£920,000£440,000Total£2,440,000£3,280,000£1,990,000For presentational purposes, figures have been rounded to the nearest £10,000 to improve the clarity of output and convey an appropriate level of precision.Definitions for each type of advert: Job Boards – job advertising sites, which are used to promote Army jobs.Display – banner adverts that appear on websites.Search – the cost to return an advert on search engine sites Google and Bing, which will appear higher up search listings.Paid Social – content paid to be placed on social media sites Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. A breakdown of costs for each website used for job boards, search and paid social advertising is attached. Figures have been rounded to the nearest £1,000.Display and search advertisements are placed through the Cabinet Office Media Buying Agency. For display advertising they use algorithms to target audiences, rather than advertising on specific websites, meaning adverts may appear on a number of online platforms that carry advertising. As of 21 September 2017, there were 1,173 approved websites listed on the latest Cabinet Office Government Whitelist. It was also found that there were errors with the figures provided in the response to Questions 127844 and 127845. The total spend for Army recruitment advertising over the past three financial years (FY) on Facebook and Twitter is shown in the table below. There was no spend on Snapchat.  FY 2015-16FY 2016-17FY 2017-18 (Up to 31 December 2017)Facebook£262,000£640,000£480,000Twitter£2,000£178,000£41,000For presentational purposes, figures have been rounded to the nearest £1,000 to improve the clarity of output and convey an appropriate level of precision. The figures above include £2,000 spent boosting Facebook posts in 2016-17 and £19,400 in 2017-18. The target audience for boosted Facebook posts are those aged between 16 and 24 for the Regular Army and between 16 and 35 for the Reserves that have expressed an interest in a career with the British Army. 



Social Media Platforms
(Excel SpreadSheet, 64.39 KB)




Army Recruitment Advertisements
(Excel SpreadSheet, 21.03 KB)

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Plastics: Seas and Oceans

Lesley Laird: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to prevent plastic waste from entering the seas around the UK.

David Rutley: Nine billion plastic carrier bags have been taken out of circulation since the introduction of our 5p carrier bag charge in 2015. A beach clean survey in 2016 reported a 40% reduction in the number of plastic bags found since the charge was introduced. Furthermore, research published by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science in February has shown that there has been a decrease in the number of plastic bags found on the UK’s seabed. In March, we worked with two trade bodies to launch an industry led initiative to encourage their members to extend the carrier bag charge on a voluntary basis. This initiative will further reduce usage, and we will set out our next steps in due course to extend the charge further. Single use plastic items make up a large part of marine litter and are frequently in the top 10 of items found during beach cleans. The Treasury is currently conducting a call for evidence seeking views on how the tax system or charges could reduce the waste from single use plastics. We will introduce a deposit return scheme to increase recycling rates and reduce littering, subject to consultation later this year. We will also ban plastic straws, cotton buds and drink stirrers, subject to consultation and with exemption where use is required for medical reasons. As marine litter is a transboundary problem we also work productively with other countries to address it, particularly through the Oslo and Paris Conventions for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR), G7, G20 and the UN Environment Programme. Through OSPAR we are working to develop and promote best practice in the fishing industry to address the issue of marine litter.We published the Litter Strategy for England in April 2017, setting out our aim to clean up the country and deliver a substantial reduction in litter and littering within a generation. The Litter Strategy brings together communities, businesses, charities and schools to bring about real change by focusing on three key themes: education and awareness; improving enforcement; and better cleaning and access to bins.Tackling litter on land will help to reduce the amount of material (including plastic) reaching the marine area, where it is much more difficult to remove.

Plastics: Waste

Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department made an assessment of the effect of the ban on disposable plastic straws on disabled people.

Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with representatives of disability charities on banning disposable plastic straws.

Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what impact assessments his Department undertook in relation to disabled people in advance of the decision to ban disposable plastic straws.

Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Welsh Government on the introduction of a ban on plastic disposable straws.

David Rutley: A recent study indicated that up to 8.5 billion plastic straws are used and thrown away annually in the UK. At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit in April, the Prime Minister announced that subject to a consultation to be launched by Defra later this year, there will be a ban on the sale of plastic straws, drink stirrers and plastic-stemmed cotton buds in England. We will also propose excluding plastic straws for medical reasons. Policy proposals will be subject to an impact assessment. Defra is in the process of developing the Consultation and as part of that, we are keen that we get the exemption and the overall approach absolutely right. We are aware that there are a number of vital uses for plastics straws for both elderly and disabled people, which is why we made clear the need for an exemption from the outset. We are reaching out to all stakeholders in general, including Devolved Administrations but in particular, disability charities and other groups to talk through the policy implications and ensure their concerns are addressed.

Cabinet Office

Local Government: Elections

Conor McGinn: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the news release entitled Thousands of voters turned away from polling stations in mandatory ID trials, published by the Electoral Reform Society on 4 May 2018, what assessment he has made of the accuracy of the estimate by the Electoral Reform Society that 3,981 people were turned away from polling stations across the five pilot areas; and if he will make an estimate of what that figure would be in the event that the scheme was rolled out nationally.

Chloe Smith: Holding answer received on 22 May 2018






An error has been identified in the written answer given on 25 May 2018.The correct answer should have been:

Requiring some form of identification to vote was successfully tested at the local elections on 3 May by five local authorities: Bromley, Gosport, Swindon, Watford and Woking. The overwhelming majority of people cast their vote without a problem and the success of the pilots proves that this is a reasonable and proportionate measure to take, and there was no notable adverse effect on turnout.The estimate by the political lobby group the Electoral Reform Society is exaggerated and inaccurate. Data from Returning Officers across all five participating local authorities shows that there were 340 electors asked to return to the polling station with the correct identification who did not subsequently return. This represents 0.16% of the votes cast.This reflects that such identification was a brand new requirement, and a few electors may not have read the publicity that they were sent about the pilots.However, the experience of Northern Ireland, where paper ID has been required since 1985 and photo ID since 2003, illustrates that there should be no issue with voters not knowing - once the requirement has become established.The Electoral Commission is responsible for carrying out an independent, statutory evaluation of the pilot schemes and will publish its findings in the summer of 2018; this will be an opportunity to review how the publicity arrangements operated and could be improved. This is one of the benefits of piloting the policy.

Chloe Smith: Holding answer received on 22 May 2018



Requiring some form of identification to vote was successfully tested at the local elections on 3 May by five local authorities: Bromley, Gosport, Swindon, Watford and Woking. The overwhelming majority of people cast their vote without a problem and the success of the pilots proves that this is a reasonable and proportionate measure to take, and there was no notable adverse effect on turnout.The estimate by the political lobby group the Electoral Reform Society is exaggerated and inaccurate. Data from Returning Officers across all five participating local authorities shows that there were 340 electors asked to return to the polling station with the correct identification who did not subsequently return. This represents 0.16% of the votes cast.This reflects that such identification was a brand new requirement, and a few electors may not have read the publicity that they were sent about the pilots.However, the experience of Northern Ireland, where paper ID has been required since 1985 and photo ID since 2003, illustrates that there should be no issue with voters not knowing - once the requirement has become established.The Electoral Commission is responsible for carrying out an independent, statutory evaluation of the pilot schemes and will publish its findings in the summer of 2018; this will be an opportunity to review how the publicity arrangements operated and could be improved. This is one of the benefits of piloting the policy.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Food and Drinks: Advertising

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of a 9.00pm watershed for TV advertisements for food and drinks that are high in fat, sugar and salt.

Margot James: As part of the Childhood Obesity Plan, the Government is investing millions in the National Institute for Health Research Obesity Policy Research Unit (OPRU) to look at evidence on how all forms of marketing affect children’s food preferences and consumption to help inform further thinking on this. The OPRU will begin publishing their findings later this year.

Social Media: Crime

Ben Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps his Department has taken to help tackle illegal behaviour on social media platforms.

Margot James: Following the publication of the Government response to the Internet Safety Strategy Green Paper on 20 May, DCMS and Home Office will jointly work on a White Paper with other government departments, to be published later this year. This will set out legislation to be brought forward that tackles a range of both legal and illegal harms, from cyberbullying to online child sexual exploitation. The Government will continue to collaborate closely with industry on this work, to ensure it builds on progress already made. As the Prime Minister said in her speech at Davos on 25 January, we are looking at the legal liability that social media companies have for the illegal content shared on their sites. Before taking any decisions we will be working closely with the full range of stakeholders who have an interest in this area.

Nutrition: Children

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the consumption patterns of 5 to 15 year olds as a result of advertising aimed a children on (a) television, (b) Facebook, (c) YouTube and (d) Google.

Margot James: As part of the Childhood Obesity Plan, the Government is investing millions in the National Institute for Health Research Obesity Policy Research Unit to look at evidence on how all forms of marketing (including broadcast and online) affect children’s food preferences and consumption to help inform further thinking on this. The OPRU will begin publishing their findings later this year. We also recently announced the Digital Charter, which aims to make the UK the safest place to be online. As you will have seen from the recently published Internet Safety Strategy, as part of the Digital Charter’s work programme, Government will work with regulators, platforms and advertising companies to ensure that the principles that govern advertising in traditional media – such as preventing companies targeting unsuitable advertisements at children – also apply and are enforced online.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Facebook

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many meetings members of his Department has had with Facebook on safeguarding since the EU Referendum in June 2016.

Margot James: Ministers and officials have regular meetings and discussions with social media companies on a range of issues including safeguarding. Details of ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the Gov.uk website.